Your stomach’s growling and you’re desperate to find food.

But which restaurant do you go to? So many choices present themselves and you hesitate.

Promoters smell your indecision and advance towards you, ready to pounce on you, the undecided customer.

The area is bustling with the clang of cutlery on plates and chatter of patrons. however one restaurant in particular stands out.

Its door is adorned with accolades:

“Recommended on TripAdvisor.com”

“TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2014?

“Recommended by Routard 2014?”

Bustling crowds and those stickers? Darn, this must be good!

And without looking at the other restaurants, you have already made your decision.

Is it possible that these stickers convey more about value than a sales pitch?

Community review sites are everywhere.

TripAdvisor, Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yelp!, Amazon, just to name a few.

Each of these sites seek a new form of recommendation from its customers — positive and informative on-line reviews to build credibility and social proof.

Why are community reviews so powerful?

Are we cynical from reading too many skewed glowing ‘editorial’ reviews? Do we wonder if celebrities can relate to our lifestyles?

Just like how we trust on word of mouth recommendations from friends, online reviews are another form of these recommendations.

We do care about what others think. In a 2012 Nielsen’s report on Global Trust in Advertising, 92% of consumers surveyed said they would trust recommendations from people that they knew. Online reviews came second, with 70% trusting online recommendations.

We want to be reassured by people ‘just like me’ that we are making the right decision.

Online reputations have never been so important. We check online reviews before buying something, and these reviews influence whether we buy the product or not.

Here is a psychological effect called social proof at work.

What is social proof?

If you saw a crowd suddenly looking up into the sky, would you think: oh what are they looking at?

If it was a single person looking, maybe you think he’s a little crazy.

What about ten? Hmmm, what’s he looking at?

How about fifty or hundred people?

In 1968, social psychologists put various numbers of people on a street corner and had them look up at an empty sky for sixty seconds.

They found that the larger the crowd of sky gazers, the more likely it was for passer-by’s to stop and find out what the fuss was all about.

How does this apply to our everyday life?

• When looking for places to eat, which is more attractive? A restaurant with bustling activity or one which is empty?
• What about a nightclub? One which is empty or one which has a snaking line extending to the street?
• Do you find yourself screaming along with fans at a concert, even though you don’t usually do such things?

Power of similarity

As we prefer things or ideas we can identify with, positive recommendations are more powerful if they come from someone that we know.

Social networks leverage on this and always show the activity and recommendations from your social circle first.

What about negativity?

A huge 67% of customers won’t book a hotel after reading up to 3 negative reviews.

Why are negative reviews so powerful?

We tend to remember bad things more accurately than good. I remember my experience stranded in London better than how I felt when I got accepted for a job interview.

Bad events also wear off more slowly than good ones.

Can these online reviews be trusted?

Evidently many people contribute and refer to online review sites. TripAdvisor alone contains over 50 million reviews from the community.

Which leads us to another question: are these reviews reliable?

Many travellers and potential customers rely on on-line reviews to assess value. Rating are especially important for businesses on TripAdvisor as they directly affect their reputation and revenue.

With such high stakes, can we trust people not to be dishonest?

Such reliance on the community raises questions if the information is reliable. Despite TripAdvisor’s checks to prevent bogus reviews, there have been controversies and legal action about inaccurate reviews on TripAdvisor. Some businesses have attempted to bribe customers to give favourable reviews.

How should we respond?

Perhaps we should be able to think for ourselves, instead of taking information at face value. Online review sites are useful to get a general idea.

But we are fully capable of making our own judgements, right?

Three things you can look at to become a smarter consumer

• Look at the source

Reviews on main websites should be taken with a pinch of salt as they might be planted.

Refer to multiple websites to get a more balanced perspective. Is there consensus between multiple websites about the product / attraction? Consider reviewer’s usernames — reviewers going by their real name tend to be more trustworthy.

Also look at the reviewer history; most helpful reviews tend to appear first. Has the reviewer reviewed other products, and if so is the quality consistent across all their reviews?

• Consider a balance of reviews

Look at reviews across the scoring spectrum to get a more balanced picture of positives and negatives.

• Level of detail in reviews

Naturally, more detailed reviews that evaluate the positives and negatives of an attraction would be the most useful. Specific details also give the reviewer credibility.

Online review sites: Yay or Nay?

It’s so easy to find reviews about products and attractions from other people online.

This is a blessing and a curse.

Information readily available can simplify the decision making process to make quicker decisions.

However, other people’s opinions are also more accessible and we can just remember what people think.

What about forming your own opinions instead of relying on others? Sometimes we just need to take a step back from all the information and make a decision on our own.

Cover photo credit: Achim Hepp (Flickr)